When the bus drove into Mandalay province, passengers were all waken up to get off to pass ceremonial security checks by showing their identities; Since nobody asked me to do that, I stretched out a little bit but the cold made me jump back onto the bus immediately. I didn't do the check as well as several other locals.
And then around 6:30 in the morning, I was so grateful because Mandalay was having a very beautiful dawning welcome to me. The sunrise, against the misty mountains with high palm trees was just incredible.And far in the distance, I could see clearly those white pagodas with golden spines everywhere, up on the top or at the foot, shimmering in the morning sunshine.It's Sagaing Hill by the Ayeyarwady River, with over 500 temples and pagodas and 6000 monks. Among the three ancient capitals around Mandalay, Sagaing Hill actually was only one not on my plan, but in the morning mist, the hill was just sacred.
When the bus stopped at a very old and dirty station, we sensed we were in Mandalay. There all at once gathered many local ricksaw drivers. When one of them held the name of my hostel,'Royal Guesthouse', I blindly followed him to his car. There when I was ready to open the month to negotiate the price, anothe driver led a European man up too. We exchanged smiles and greetings, I knew there he came with the same bus as me. He got on the bus almost the last minute so he and me, instead of me alone, only foreigners on the night bus.
He was Andrew, from UK. He totally controlled the situation when he heard out the driver's quota. I of course agreed to go with him as he knew a much cheaper way to get into the downtown from this outskirt station. And in fact, just out of the station, there parked a lot of pickups. Andrew could speak some Burmese and he made sure the direction and location where we should be dropped. Of course we didn't go immediately. We waited around 15 more minutes till the pickup was quite crowded. The rate was only 300 k, which was actually the only time in my whole trip I paid the same price as the local people. Thanks to Andrew. I was so lucky.
While we were waiting, we chatted a little bit. Of course we started by guessing our nationality. And when I corrected him by saying I'm Chinese, Andrew immediately began to speak Chinese to me, some basic words but in perfect accent. He told me he now worked in Chongqing for a NGO and this was his third time to visit Myanmar. He even had takes some meditation lessons at some temple.
He planed to stay at Nylon which was located about one minute's walk from my place, Royal. Nylon was 5 dollars but Royal only 3 dollar. He expressed he'd like to check out Royal first if it had some single room available. And on the pickup there were other Germans, who were going to a hotel around 10-12 dollars recommended by a local.
It took about 20 minutes to come into the downtown area;the first difference between here and Yangon was there were so many many motorcycles on the roads. There were very few nice new buildings. Royal was in prime location: on 25th str between 82nd and 83rd. Andrew didn't even hesitate a second for the direction, and yes, just half a minute's walk off the main street, we were there.
It was not a big hotel, but some pots of plants in the front made nice first impression. And we entered, I quickly was confirmed a room.( No wonder, I almost booked one month before.) But unfortunately there was no more single for Andrew. And there, the girl at the desk said:
We have a room available, with a very soft king size bed. Would you like it?
You mean, one bed?
Yes.
Andrew and I looked at each other a second and smiled the same time. I said,
'Maybe not. You know, we just met. Maybe tomorrow we might be more friendly.'
I felt so sorry for Andrew when I saw his back leaving with his big bags after we bid goodbye. This was a very real travel,I told myself, like what the Beatles sing, you say hello I say goodbye, but so quickly.
My name and my booking dates were written on their chalkboard. I explained the second day I would check out and then go to stay in Maymeo but come back for two more days. Then I checked out my room. Actually the room was very basic, one bed, clean but a little worn-out bedding, a table with a fan. That's it. The good value was the room rate, 3 dollars includes breakfast.
I took a shower and fell into a sound nap.
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